Friday, January 28, 2011

I wouldn't want to necessarily endorse anything else in this essay from Slavoj Žižek, but I quite liked this passage:

We are often told that privacy is disappearing, that the most intimate secrets are open to public probing. But the reality is the opposite: what is effectively disappearing is public space, with its attendant dignity. Cases abound in our daily lives in which not telling all is the proper thing to do. In Baisers volés, Delphine Seyrig explains to her young lover the difference between politeness and tact: ‘Imagine you inadvertently enter a bathroom where a woman is standing naked under the shower. Politeness requires that you quickly close the door and say, “Pardon, Madame!”, whereas tact would be to quickly close the door and say: “Pardon, Monsieur!”’ It is only in the second case, by pretending not to have seen enough even to make out the sex of the person under the shower, that one displays true tact.

Monday, January 17, 2011

"There are millions of people in Alarm Clock Britain," Clegg writes. "People, like Sun readers, who have to get up every morning and work hard to get on in life."

Basically, Alarm Clock Britain consists of people who use alarm clocks. That counts me out, because I wake each morning to the sound of my own despairing screams. Which I guess makes me part of Scream Wake Britain – a demographic Clegg has chosen to ignore.

I find that the point at which politicians start droning on about about the sacrifices of ordinary people who...uh...get up and go to work is essentially the point at which they might as well admit that they really don't have anything useful to contribute to the debate.

To any debate.

It's rather equivalent to defending your policy by saying 'think of the children', i.e., an admission of intellectual bankruptcy.

Although I have to say Nick Clegg has suprised me in at least one way: I never thought I'd find him more embarrassing than David Cameron.

Other than being positively disposed towards Germany, I can't say that Nick has much going for him these days.

And, given that he's in some way tarnishing us Germans by association with his silly pandering to Sun readers, I think he's best start Mentioning the War pretty soon, so as to save us some embarrassment.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Although, as you might know, there is a great love for the Common Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus) in this here household, we are of course aware that there's plenty of other sweet birds in the skies around Château Pudding. Like for instance Aegithalos caudatus, aka the Long-tailed Tit:

Now just imagine a whole posse of these cute little snowballs (with tails) frolicking in amidst the bare branches of a wild rose bush, like the ones I saw this morning when out running.

Coming home I did a little pre-weekend research and decided that the long-tailed tit was even sweeter than I had imagined. They're not only very sociable animals, who tend to muck about in flocks of around 20 or so individuals. It also seems that they have their collective life sorted out quite splendidly.

For instance, this marvellous species has an admirable albeit complicated sleep ritual (depending on whether it's winter or summer), involving (in the cold months) mutual preening, pseudo courtship rituals and collective cuddling. This is from the German Wikipedia entry (which I can't be asked to translate):

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Well, there we are: for anyone who thought that the recent terrible events in Arizona would lead to some serious soul searching and an improvement in the climate of American political discussion, I would suggest that Sarah Palin's latest thoughtful contribution to the matter pounds a pretty hefty nail in that hope's coffin.

(I was not one of those optimists; however, a load of work -- combined with a general fury and disgust at the whole dreadful thing -- has kept me from commenting, so you'll just have to take my word on it.)

For what it's worth: a couple of comments that I did think worthwhile: MGK and PZ.

Now, I'm going to return to thinking about something that doesn't make me want to throw up.

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